SoCal Road Trip - Santa Barbara Edition

We love road trips. I like to sit in my snoozer car seat with the window rolled down and the wind in my ears. On the other paw, my brother likes to lay down and fall asleep to the hum of the wind. Woof woof!

We wanted to start off 2013 with a huge road trip. Many of our friends frequently bark about cities in central and southern California as being furtastic pet-friendly vacation spots. We had to sniff out these cities for ourselves.

Before our road trip, we needed to know where to sleep and where to eat. I helped mom search for pet friendly hotels and restaurants on BringFido.com. We found all of our hotel choices fairly quickly. The restaurants were a little tricky. I wanted to find dog eateries that would serve more than a treat and a bowl of water. I wanted a dog menu. Restaurants with dog menus are a huge indicator that the establishment loves and respects our canine taste buds. Mommy had to do a little more detective work online in order to find the canine menus we desired.

It was hard picking just one outfit to pack.

After mommy booked our hotel reservations, Solo and I packed our clothes, food, and treats along with copies of our vaccinations. Any canine traveling away from home should have a copy of their vaccinations just in case of emergencies. In addition, many pet-friendly hotels have dog sitters or dog walkers available. You may need to show proof of your vaccinations depending on the policy of the hotel. Mom likes me to pack a hard copy in my luggage and I scanned a copy and email it to myself too.

During our road trip, we sniffed out cool pet-friendly eateries, boutiques, and doggie vacation spots. Our first destination was Santa Barbara, CA.

We stayed one night at the Beach House Inn & Apartments. This inn was very cozy and the customer service was pawesome. During check in, we were given a list of dog friendly eateries in the area and a list of local dog parks and stores.

Solo and I liked the fire place and big comfy chairs in the room. There was a small fridge and microwave so mommy could store and warm up our pumpkin chicken breakfast.

There is a park within walking distance from the inn. We sniffed around the park and met some local canines from the area. It was a nice walk and helped us stretch our legs after a long drive in the car.

We ate dinner at The Brewhouse. The restaurant was a 10 minute walk from the inn. We sat outside on the patio with mom and ordered off of the Brew-Dogs menu. I love finding pet-friendly restaurants and my tail wags even harder when I can order from a dog menu.

 
My brother and I ordered the chicken strips and love every yummy morsel. After a great meal at The Brewhouse, mommy, Solo, and I walked back to the hotel.

My bro and I ended the night in front of the fire place surfing the internet on our iBones. We enjoyed the hotel's complementary WiFi access until we fell asleep. The next morning we packed up, mommy grabbed a cup of complementary coffee, and we headed to Loose Pooch Dog Club.

We met the owner Nathan Woods and a few of his furtastic staff members. Everyone was really nice and gave us lots of head pats and scratches behind our ears. We made sure to purchase the Loose Pooch dog shirt as a souvenir. I liked to collect dog shirts during my travels and especially like the bright orange color of Loose Pooch's shirts. We recommend that every dog sniffing around Santa Barbara stop by Loose Pooch for a head scratch and a souvenir shirt. Woof!

We had a wooftastic time in Santa Barbara and hope to visit again soon. Santa Barbara is a great city and a great doggie destination. Sniff it out sometime and keep wandering.

Stay tuned for our next SoCal edition. We wandered farther down the coast and sniff out some wooftastic canine hangouts around San Diego. Woof woof!